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Byker Grave Festival will be bringing sludge, d-beats, bulletbelts and a whole heap of riffs to Newcastle University on December 7, with New Orleans legends Eyehategod featuring on a stacked extreme metal bill.

Eyehategod will be joined by Louisiana black thrash crew Goatwhore, UK punk legends Discharge, Northumbrian ‘monastic doom’ act Arð, Birmingham riff wielders Margarita Witch Cult, stoner metal trio Goblin Smoker and emerging doom metallers Druidess.

More bands are set to be announced for the all-dayer soon.

Byker Grave Festival has become a staple of North East England’s metal calendar since it launched in 2013.

Straddling death, black and thrash metal, grind, sludge, doom and noise, the annual event has brought the likes of Conan, P.L.F., Green Lung, Knoll and Conjurer to Newcastle – and it has provided a platform for local artists such as Disciplinary, Waheela and Live Burial.

Louisiana natives and touring partners Eyehategod and Goatwhore will both be making rare appearances on British soil in December, while the hugely influential Discharge last hit Newcastle back in 2022, when they delivered an incendiary set at the city’s Anarchy Brewery.

Arð – the brainchild of Blyth-based composer and arranger Mark Deeks – bagged our Doom Metal Album Of The Year in 2022 with Take Up My Bones: Deeks will be unleashing that album’s follow-up, Untouched By Fire, on April 26.

Another North East act, Goblin Smoker, have been making waves in the UK’s doom/stoner scene over the last year, with London’s riff fiesta, Desertfest next up for the boys.

And Druidess, who also hail from Newcastle, released their first EP, Hermits & Mandrakes, just last month.

Margarita Witch Cult, meanwhile, will be heading up from the Midlands for the fest… and they’ll be bringing the Iommian grooves of their self-title debut, released in 2023 on Heavy Psych Sounds, with them.

The first Byker Grave Festival was organised in 2013 as a response to the cancellation of the ill-fated Northern Darkness Festival, and has been held in venues across the city ever since

2020 and 2021’s editions were cancelled due the Coronavirus pandemic, but the festival made a return in 2023, with in-demand blackened speed metallers Hellripper headlining a 10-band bill at Anarchy Brewery.

For tickets and info on Byker Grave Festival 2024 visit Byker Grave Bookings.

Check out what happened of Byker Grave Festival 2023 here.